Traveling ignition charge



Aug. 22, 1967 J. B. QUINLAN TRAVELING IGNITION CHARGE Filed Sept. 21,1965 jwvW (m JOSEPH B. QUINLAN United States Patent 3,336,871 TRAVELINGIGNITION CHARGE Joseph B. Quinlan, Philadelphia, Pa., assignor to theUnited States of America as represented by the Secretary of the ArmyFiled Sept. 21, 1965, Ser. No. 489,086 3 Claims. (Cl. 102-38) ABSTRACTOF TIDE DISCLOSURE An integrated, caseless molded round having an axialcavity therethrough. A projectile secured at the front end of saidcavity and a primer plug secured at the rear end thereof. A movablemolded charge is held in said cavity a short distance from said primerplug to act as a traveling ignition charge thereby causing completeburnout of said round and higher muzzle velocity.

The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or forthe Government for governmental purposes Without the payment to me ofany royalty thereon.

The present invention relates to a small charge of fast burningpropellant made from molding propellant granules and primed with aconventional primer mix which acts as a traveling ignition charge in around of 30 mm. caseless ammunition.

Caseless ammunition has in the past proved to be feasible for severalcalibers ranging from the experimental 3.2 mm. to caliber .30. It hasbeen demonstrated that an integrated, molded granular propellant couldbe made to yield gas generation rates similar to those obtained withloose granular propellant in a conventional case.

It is believed that a 30 mm. caseless round made to meet the requiredbalistic requirement of 3450 feet per second muzzle velocity could beused with vehicle rapid fire weapon systems.

The main advantages of a 30 mm. caseless round are:

(1) Reduction in cartridge weight and volume,

(2) Elimination of spent cases in tanks and aircraft thus eliminating astorage problem or the need for ejection from the vehicle,

(3) Elimination of the toxic fume problem for tank ammunition,

(4) Elimination of the need for expensive tools, processing, andcritical brass incidental to the use of metal cartridge cases, and

(5) A potential reduction in the unit cost of ammunition and in logisticstorage and supply costs due to the reduction in weight and volume.

To achieve a 30 mm. caseless round with the muzzle velocity of 3450 feetper second the propellant must be made to break up and burn completely.There can be no unburned propellant left after firing.

An object of the present invention is the provision of a travelingignition charge in a round of 30 mm. caseless ammunition resulting inhigher muzzle velocity.

Another object is to provide a traveling ignition charge in a round of30 mm. caseless ammunition capable of facilitating ignition and break-upof the caseless propellant charge.

The exact nature of this invention as well as other objects andadvantages thereof will be readily apparent upon consideration of thefollowing specification relating to the annexed drawing.

Referring now to the single figure of the drawing wherein a longitudinalsection of a preferred embodiment of the invention is shown, a moldedpropellant comprisice ing granules of propellant bonded in a molded massby a low-nitrogen nitro-cellulose binder has a projectile 12 secured ina forward recess 14. The projectile 12 is provided with a band 16 toprovide the projectile 12 with spin upon its travel through the barrelof the weapon, not shown, u-pon firing.

An axial cavity 18 is formed within the round and is generally centrallydisposed therewithin as shown. This cavity is used to provide axialignition and to insure a means of controlling charge weight as describedin patent application, Ser. No. 343,904, filed Feb. 10, 1964, now PatentNo. 3,212,440.

The traveling ignition charge, indicated generally by the referencenumeral 20 is secured in a rearward recess of the molded propellant 10 ashort distance ahead of a standard primer plug 22 of the type describedin patent application of Quinlan et al., Ser. No. 477,046, filed Aug. 3,196 5, and includes charge 24 made of a fast burning propellant. Thepropel lant charge 24 may be solid, cored, or honeycomb to achievedesired results of ignition and breakup. The propellant charge 24contains a primer pocket 26 which holds a conventional small armspriming mix 28. The amount of mix 28 utilized depends on the size of thesolid propellant charge to be broken up.

The traveling ignition charge is made of a fast burning propellantgranule, molded into an integral charge and pocketed for a priming mix.After the traveling ignition charge is primed it is inserted into theperforation of the caseless round ahead of a standard primer plugallowing enough free volume therebetween to allow the traveling ignitioncharge to fire at an optimum velocity. The traveling ignition charge isignited by a standard primer blast and in turn travels the length of theperforation igniting the round.

The traveling ignition charge serves as an auxiliary ignition andbreakup element for solid propellant caseless cavity, a projectilesecured in said forward recess, a

primer plug secured in said rearward recess, and an ignition chargemovable upon ignition and temporarily secured in said axial cavity ashort distance from said primer plug.

2. A device of the type described in claim 1 wherein said ignitioncharge comprises a molded solid propellant. 3. A device of the typedescribed in claim 2 wherein said molded solid propellant ignitioncharge contains a primer pocket.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,856,022 4/1932 Blacker 10238 X3,008,258 11/1961 Johnson 10238 X 3,114,290 12/1963 Harvey et al. l0238X FOREIGN PATENTS 455,382 1/ 1928 Germany.

BENJAMIN A. BORCHELT, Primary Examiner. ROBERT F. STAHL, Examiner.

a molded solid propellant Y

1. AN INTEGRATED, CASELESS MOLDED ROUND COMPRISING GRANULES OFPROPELLANT BONDED IN A MOLDED MASS BY A LOW NITROGEN NITRO-CELLULOSEBINDER, SAID MOLDED MASS HAVING A FORWARD RECESS AND A REARWARDCONNECTED BY AN AXIAL CAVITY, A PROJECTILE SECURED IN SAID FORWARDRECESS, A PRIMER PLUG SECURED IN SAID REARWARD RECESS, AND AN IGNITIONCHARGE MOVABLE UPON IGNITION AND TEMPORARILY SECURED IN SAID AXIALCAVITY A SHORT DISTANCE FROM SAID PRIMER PLUG.